Hunith Approves
by valeriange
Summary: "He must care for you a great deal," Hunith said. Merlin brushed the words aside. "Arthur would do the same for any village; that's just the way he is." "It's more than that," Hunith insisted. "He's here for you." Hunith sees how Merlin and Arthur are around each other, and she knows.


They hadn't been in Ealdor for a whole day as of yet, but it was plenty of time for Hunith to know. All she had to do was look over to wherever her son was, and there Arthur would be. Whenever Merlin made one of his snide comments, Arthur wouldn't hesitate to retort back just as stingingly, and when Arthur insulted him, Merlin did so right back.

Merlin told her, briefly in passing – Arthur was calling him over to look at something – that he served as Arthur's manservant, and luckily he moved away right after that, because there was a look of utter shock across Hunith's face. A manservant? Her son? Her son, with his clumsiness and his powerful magic and his tongue – a servant? And to the prince, at that?

They certainly didn't treat each other like servants should treat their masters, Hunith thought, watching as Arthur put a hand around Merlin's shoulders to direct him closer to whatever he was pointing out. Merlin was unfazed by the closeness, and Arthur didn't hesitate to draw him in. She saw their mouths moving in conversation, and when Merlin pulled away he was smiling, while Arthur made a dramatically offended expression and scoffed.

No, no. Merlin was no servant.

"He must care for you a great deal," Hunith said, as Merlin readied to follow Arthur out the door.

Merlin brushed the words aside with ease, not batting an eye. "Arthur would do the same for any village; that's just the way he is," he said, shrugging on his coat.

"It's more than that," Hunith insisted. "He's here for _you_."

"I'm just his servant," Merlin replied. Hunith thought she could hear an underlying tone of defeated dismissal there, a resigned tone that sent little cracks flourishing in spiderweb patterns across her heart.

She put on a smile. "Give him more credit than that; he _likes_ you," she said.

Merlin turned around then. "That's because he doesn't _know_ me."

And it broke Hunith's heart to hear that, to hear her little boy sound so accepting of the fact that no would take him in as he truly was.

"And if he did," Merlin continued, "I'd probably be dead by now." He tried to put on a faint smile, which quickly vanished.

Quietly, Hunith said, "You don't really believe that, do you?"

Merlin didn't answer.

Hunith, certainly, did not believe it.

If Merlin wasn't following Arthur around, Arthur was following him. The two never separated from each other's sides if they could help it – not at meals, not even in sleeping. Hunith wouldn't have given this alone too much thought, but then Will was teasing Merlin about forcing the prince to come along with him, and Merlin said, "I didn't. I left on my own, and he came after me."

Will shut up after that.

Hunith couldn't help but smile.

It seemed to be a trait of Arthur's, that he trailed after Merlin just as much as Merlin did after him. In all her years with Merlin, she had never known him to take one trip into the forest that didn't come back with an arm or a leg covered in bruises from tripping over himself. But when Arthur gathered up his things to go scout around the village, Merlin all but leapt to his feet to go along with him. Arthur didn't tell him to; Merlin didn't ask. Hunith got the idea that this was something typical of their relationship – wherever one went, the other would follow.

When Merlin returned, his cheeks red and sweat dampening his brow, while Arthur strutted about without showing the slightest sign of being winded, Hunith welcomed them back into her house and prepared making dinner. Merlin leapt up to help her, taking a basket from her hands, placing it on the table, and beginning to sort through it, all while talking avidly about the things they had encountered in the woods.

"You should have seen it, Mum. This deer was bigger than any of the ones Will ever brought back. Arthur could have gotten it easily, I know he could've, but I – er – didn't see the twigs there. And you know those rocks Will and I would always scale? Arthur beat Will's time; he got up it in half his time and he wasn't even trying to complete; obviously he didn't know about Will's time. And then—"

While Merlin rambled on, Hunith twisted around to see Arthur hesitating awkwardly at the edge of the kitchen, one foot in the room and the other just outside. She gave him her kindest smile and extending a welcoming hand. "Come on in, darling."

Arthur frowned, and when his eyes moved over to her, she realized he had been watching Merlin, not staring vacantly at the wall. "I, uh. Don't know what to do."

"Well, I'm sure Merlin can be of assistance." She swatted her son on the arm, causing him to jump and look up at her. "Can't you show Arthur how to help with dinner, dear?"

Merlin's face split into a glowing grin.

Hunith thought she would be able to relax with an early evening, but after thirty minutes passed and she still didn't smell anything cooking, she walked back inside from her garden and peeked into the kitchen.

"I told you, _Mer_ -lin, I don't know a thing about—"

"Yes, well, that's why I was trying to _help_ you!"

"You were doing a shoddy job of it!"

"I was doing my best!"

"Then do better!"

"I'm _trying_ , you prat."

That was certainly no way for a manservant to talk to his master, and most definitely no way for a subject to talk to his prince. Hunith's eyebrow arched as she continued to listen to their back and forth, which made no progress over the following minute, but did delve into some creative insults she had never heard before and was half-certain they had simply made-up on the spot.

Gwen entered the doorway behind her, and upon seeing the two, she simply made a resigned sound under her breath and called out, "Boys! If you're done."

Arthur threw up his hands and turned away from Merlin. Merlin gave a Gwen a practiced look, like 'see what I have to deal with?', to which Gwen responded with an empathetic smile.

By dinner, after Merlin had ranted to Gwen in the living room and Arthur to Morgana in the garden after Hunith banished them from the kitchen, Merlin and Arthur went about like nothing had happened. Merlin teased Arthur, and Arthur responded bitingly, and Merlin smiled and retorted with just as much fiery snark. Neither looked particularly offended with the other; Hunith was sure they had done some kicking under the table at one point. From Gwen and Morgana's unimpressed expressions, this was not a rare occurrence.

As they cleaned up, with Arthur and Merlin having vanished to do God-knows-what, Gwen told her, "I would think it was strange if they didn't banter back and forth, to tell you the truth. That's just Arthur and Merlin for you."

Hunith said, "Merlin has always had quite the tongue on him."

Morgana laughed. "He's a good fit for Arthur, then. I've been waiting years for someone to stand up against his bullying. He's actually become _tolerable_ since Merlin arrived."

Hunith felt herself smiling at that. She had spent her last few years with Merlin worrying incessantly that his tongue would land him in the stocks or the gallows or the dungeon. She never imagined her son would return home alongside the prince and princess; the prince who seemed knitted to his side with a tongue just as sharp as his and the princess and her handmaid who had nothing but loving things to say about him. All the anxiety that had drained her soul since Merlin departed lifted. He was okay. He had Gwen and Morgana and Arthur.

He certainly had Arthur.

Will had been in a foul mood ever since Arthur arrived. Hunith had grown used to his presence around her house long ago, ever since he and Merlin had become attached at the hip as adolescents. Even then, they never acted as Merlin and Arthur did. Will seemed to sense something threatening about Arthur's presence on a more personal level, as he went to her to voice his rants.

"He's just like the rest of them," Will said to her. "Merlin is going to get his heart broken."

That piqued her interest. "Why do you say that?"

Will was frowning. "You've seen how he is with Arthur," Will told her. "He follows after him with eyes as wide as full moons and whenever he says something I would have punched him for, Arthur just turns around and snaps right back. They banter."

"They're friends," said Hunith.

Will shook his head. "I don't trust him," he said again. "I think he's using Merlin."

"For what? His magic?" Hunith said. "Arthur doesn't know about Merlin's magic."

He scowled. "Then why? Why would Arthur care so much? Why would he put up with Merlin? Why would he leave his warm bed and daily feasts in Camelot to come to a village in the middle of nowhere, just because his servant took off without his permission? You've heard the way Merlin speaks to him! Does that strike you as the way a servant speaks to his master?"

"What are you suggesting?"

"Do you think—?" Will stopped, shaking his head. "Never mind."

"You can talk to me, Will," Hunith said.

Will didn't look at her, but grumbled, "Do you think he loves him?"

Hunith didn't know if he meant Merlin loving Arthur or Arthur loving Merlin, but she said, "Yes."

Hunith never really had any doubt, but she didn't know how deep their intentions were for each other until the afternoon of Matthew's death.

Arthur collapsed on a step outside the house, his shoulders bent and head down, eyes staring into nothing. Hunith thought about going over and comforting him, but then – she wasn't Merlin, and Arthur was clearly a prickly person. Luckily, it didn't take long for Merlin to find him.

Her son sat down on the stone step next to the prince of Camelot, his left shoulder behind Arthur's right as he leaned into Arthur's back, their thighs pressed together. Hunith, from her house, couldn't hear the words they exchanged, but she saw the way Merlin leaned into Arthur, and Arthur didn't move away, nor did he stiffen as if it were unexpected contact. Merlin's chin was close to resting on Arthur's shoulder as he spoke.

She caught a few words floating in from the window as she worked idly, her movements slowing as she heard more. Arthur planned to leave. He planned to leave and let those bandits return for all they had and Merlin would go with him.

Hunith wandered into the front room of her house, standing near the open door as she caught the last of the words they exchanged.

"You've just got to believe in them," Merlin said quietly, "because if you don't, they'll sense it, and the battle will be lost before it's even begun."

Arthur said nothing.

"I believe in you," Merlin told him, his voice even fainter. "You know that."

Arthur looked up to face him, and softly, Merlin pressed his lips against Arthur's. Arthur's eyes fell shut as he kissed him back, a hand rising up to gently touch Merlin's cheek.

When they pulled back, Merlin said, "I love you."

Arthur replied, "I hate you. Now gather the townspeople; we have a strategy to discuss."

After the battle had passed and Arthur and his sister and her handmaid had gathered their few things, Merlin and Hunith exchanged their goodbyes and Merlin left to stand with Gwen and Morgana, who welcomed him back. Arthur dropped the reins of his horse with Merlin, who smiled reassuringly at him, and made his way over to Hunith.

She wrapped him a tight hug. He tensed, before wrapping his arms around her gently and then pulling himself back. She kept her hands on his broad shoulders, holding him back to study him one last time. He would grow into a fine man one day, and if his actions here were anything to judge by, a great king. Besides, she doubted he could go too wrong, not when he had Merlin at his side; Merlin wouldn't tolerate it.

"It was a pleasure meeting you," Arthur said formally. "Your son, he's, ah, very important to me."

Hunith just gave him a beaming smile.

Arthur cleared his throat and glanced around the village. "So," he said, "are you sure now that you will have enough stores to make it through the winter and replant in the spring?"

"We will make do," Hunith said. "We always do."

Arthur nodded curtly.

"Besides," Hunith continued, "I expect a large dowry soon anyway."


End file.
